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The Voodoo team is honored – again – to be recognized by a leading design publication for our work in creating the Voodoo Envy 133. This time the system has won “Best of Category” in I.D. Magazine’s 2009 Design Review.

My favorite quote from their piece is: “they invented solutions to every problem they encountered.” We’ve talked a lot about our consumer centric approach to the Envy design, and it’s great to see it shining through.

 

Congrats to the entire Voodoo team!

 

 

Ok, I’ll admit it. Christmas is my absolute favorite time of the year! After all, my nickname is “Frosty." I’m also huge fans of movies. That’s why I was particularly excited about HP partnering with Disney for its upcoming flick “Disney’s A Christmas Carol,” starring Jim Carrey and directed by Academy Award winning filmmaker Robert Zemeckis.

 

Based on the famous Charles Dickens story, the movie is sure to be a hit – and an instant classic – when it opens in theatres on November 6th. To promote it, Disney decked out a train with old English decor and filled it with everything from 3D footage from the film to performance capture technology demonstrations, to scale models used in the filming, and behind-the-scenes footage and costume exhibits.

 

 

 

 

The train made a stop this weekend at the Oakland Middle Harbor Shoreline Park and we went to check it out. Besides the huge crowd and carollers, I was impressed with how interesting the exhibit was. Of course, as an HP employee, I loved hearing about our contribution to the development of the film. One interesting fact is that HP systems powered the mission control center where all the performance capture data was stored and manipulated.

 

 

The train itself is filled with some pretty cool technology. HP TouchSmart PCs and monitors are used to show off some of the digital content, including a cool application that allows visitors to morph their face onto some of the key characters.

 

The train is scheduled to travel more than 16,000 miles and make a total of 40 stops before finishing the tour at New York’s Grand Central Terminal the weekend of October 30th. Next stop: Portland.

 

Learn more about the film and the train tour here. Check out some photos from the Oakland stop here. All aboard!

My pride in HP’s green programs is no secret. But the announcement made today about HP’s support of the Plastiki expedition might be, in my opinion, one of the coolest green initiatives we’ve driven to date.

For those of you who don’t know, the Plastiki expedition is an effort by adventurer David de Rothschild and his environmental foundation Adventure Ecology to inspire people to rethink waste as a resource. To that end, they will sail across the Pacific Ocean in a 60 foot catamaran created from reclaimed plastic bottles and recycled materials. Along the way, they will document and capture data on the impact of pollution on environmentally sensitive regions, including the Eastern Garbage Patch where plastic pollution the size of Texas has accumulated. Check out some of the great Plastiki videos on YouTube.

 

The Eastern Garbage Patch, also known as the Pacific Gyre, is located in the central North Pacific Ocean. Having just returned from a trip to Hawaii that included a stop at the famous Hanauma Bay marine sanctuary, the potential for such a large repository of trash to impact our national treasures scares me beyond words. It has also captured the attention of everyone from scientists, including Charles Moore who is credited with discovering it, to photographic artist Chris Jordan who created this inspiring piece.

HP’s contribution the expedition? We are equipping Plastiki with energy efficient and durable technology that the team will use for data capture and documentation. HP is also sponsoring a Plastiki Mission Control Center at Pier 45 in San Francisco, where visitors can view exhibits of the boat-building process, track the expedition on animated maps, interact with the crew via text and webcam messages, and much more.

I attended the kick-off event at Pier 45 and found myself captivated by David as he talked about the unique challenges encountered while designing the boat. In particular I was fascinated as he described their search to find an environmentally friendly plastic able to provide enough longitudinal rigidity needed to keep the boat intact on high seas, but is still be easily recyclable after the voyage is complete.

Check out photos from the event here. Read more on HP’s support here.

The vessel is currently under construction at San Francisco’s Pier 31. It will travel 12,000 nautical miles from San Francisco to Sydney. Bon Voyage!

As Mark Solomon explained in his last post on the Voodoo Envy 133 packaging, there are a lot of unique ways to be green.  I lead the HP consumer notebook design team and wholeheartedly concur with Mark. My team and I are always on the lookout to improve every facet of the purchase and user experience.  In a similar vein to Mark’s post about how thinking outside the box can be eco-friendly, I wanted to share another way HP created greener packaging.

A few months ago, Wal-Mart Home invited technology companies to participate in the Entertainment Design Challenge.  The contest had three stipulations: think of a great design to attract customers, reduce the environmental impact of the product, and have a packaging design that encourages reuse, recycling, and a reduction of waste.

So what was our winning solution?  Simple - no packaging at all.

 

 

 

Instead of the conventional protective shipping materials such as cardboard boxes and packaging peanuts for a notebook, HP created an HP Protect Messenger Bag.  Inside the bag contains the HP Pavilion dv6929wm Entertainment Notebook, accessories, a battery, AC adaptor, chord and other standard documentation. 

Not only is the whole bag made of 100% recyclable material, it includes a free recycling offer from HP and reduces the standard notebook packaging waste by 97%.  The messenger bag is both a secure and stylish way to purchase a computer and carry it out the door with no fuss or waste.  And of course, it encourages people to keep the bag and use it multiple times.

For more details, you can read about it at Geek.com, Tree Hugger and the Wal-Mart web site.  I hope to share more distinct design innovations from our team with you readers in the future.  In the meantime, let us know what you think. Is this packaging approach something you think other companies should adopt?  Is it an effective means to be green?  Send your thoughts to us over in the forums.

 

Are there lessons we can learn from the people who innovated before us? The Heritage of Innovation podcasts are a series of interviews I will be conducting with people who created killer innovations that changed the world.  We will relive some great milestones in the history of technology and learn lessons on the nature of innovation from the people who were the driving force behind some of the world’s most important breakthroughs.

My first interview is with Dave Cochran, the product manager of the calculator that literally changed the world. Called the HP-35 after the number of its keys, it was the first calculator that could perform all of the functions of the slide rule to 10-digit precision. It was created at the request of William Hewlett himself, and the team pushed on with it despite warnings that it would fail.  

Throughout the interview, Dave, who was also part of the team recently awarded a Milestone award for his work on the HP-35 project, shares a lot of experiences and anecdotes about his work with Bill Hewlett and David Packard, along with stories about other team members including Steve Wozniak. Fittingly for this community, he even describes how the next bench concept worked:

“The set up in the laboratory was that you had a desk and behind it you had a bench...You were always looking over at what your buddy was doing because you were curious, and sometimes his project was more interesting than yours. But sometimes you would see things that were really exciting and you’d say ‘ah’...I could use something like that right now. Can you give me a prototype?...There was that back and forth.”

Download the full podcast here.

 

 

I recently came across an interesting post in CrunchGear  talking about a new poll from Pew Research.  According to the survey, only 54 percent of Americans think that TV is a necessity, and even fewer people aged 18-29 think a standalone TV is needed.  Why?  Many people are now comfortable watching their favorite TV shows on their computer, which means more people are plugging into their display monitors for entertainment. While this is great, it does highlight one challenging hurdle within the industry: the ability to transition adaptors for technology that is evolving at different rates, in this case both televisions and computer monitors.

 

With the changes from analog to digital taking place, a lot of things need to be considered.  As displays changed from tubes to LCDs, analog (VGA) no longer makes sense.  After all, computers these days have digital capabilities compatible for digital displays, so why would you need an analog VGA adaptor? 

 

Essentially, the industry took two different directions.  DVI came out for computer monitors (because they could still carry analog for those unavoidable moments) and HDMI came out for TV.  So why was HDMI included on something like the Envy?  The reason for this “cross-fertilization” is because there are many benefits.  For example, HDMI connects the notebook to a digital monitor with capabilities up to 1920x1080p of high-definition video.  In most cases, it also delivers digital audio for 7.1 surround sound.  Of course, we included a HDMI to analog VGA adaptor for those unavoidable moments when you’ll need to connect to an office projector. 

 

Although its prevalence is rising, HDMI is not without its problems.  Users often find that when a PC is connected to a monitor through the HDMI port, certain monitors do not detect the proper resolutions and settings.  As a result, images can bleed over and make things difficult to maneuver. 

 

Another option for HDMI is DisplayPort, a digital display interface standard put forth by the Video Electronics Standards Association.  It aims to standardize the display panel and graphics card connections, and doesn’t have the same issues as HDMI.  Nowadays you can find DisplayPort on many of the newer monitors and televisions.  Because DisplayPort makes it simple to connect a PC to a monitor with no adjustments, it seems like a great alternative to HDMI.  However, one advantage of HDMI is compatibility with DVI.

 

Although some notebooks have transitioned, this means that a dongle is necessary for backwards compatibility, which means a higher cost.  What is more important – money, or having the right access port?  As always, we’d love to hear your feedback. 

 

 

 It seems like a cyclical debate: is 3D an emerging trend or a returning fad?

You can easily argue that recent technological advances have put us on the cusp of a true 3D revolution. We have seen an increase in 3D movies like Monsters versus Aliens in theaters, and its possible that we’ll see similar 3D features integrated into our Blu-ray players at home. At the same time, the technology behind high-end displays, which are a requirement of any good 3D experience, is advancing at a fast rate. Innovations like HP’s flexible display and wafer thin OLED screens will undoubtedly soon impact the PC and entertainment industries.

The gaming industry also seems to be making strides. Six months ago Nvidia released its GeForce 3D vision goggles which, combined with a monitor that has a refresh rate of around 120Hz and some easily downloaded software, allows gamers to enjoy a highly immersive 3D gaming experience from their couch.  Personally, nothing would make me happier than a more real-life experience when I’m busy crushing a zombie horde.

Of course, the 3D frenzy doesn’t stop there: a recent piece in Reuters discussed all the announcements from CompuTex in Taiwan. Intel announced a $12 million investment for a visual computing research center in Europe focused on 3D, and other companies such as Qualcomm are upgrading their chips to support 3D graphics on smartphones and smaller computers.   

But even with all of the latest leaps and bounds in technology of high-tech monitors, goggles, and OLEDs – it is still pretty expensive for the average consumer. What do you guys think? Do you think 3D technology you’ll have in your home in the not-too-distant future?  How much of a premium would you be willing to pay for the 3D experience?

 

 

 

It’s hard to believe, but today marks the one year anniversary of The Next Bench.  We’ve accomplished a lot together in the last year, and I am proud to be part of such a diverse and passionate community. Here are a couple of the great milestones we’ve achieved:

 

• Exceeded 1.5 million monthly page views
• Averaging 700K+ monthly page views, including 860K last month
• Amassed a total of 2,221 thread topics
• Collectively written 39, 259 posts

One of the special things about this community is the willingness of its members to share information and support each other. Those of us on the HP team, like our reliable team mate iMaxx, do our best to provide a window into the company for the community.  We’re always there to help answer questions we see on the discussion boards in forums. But more often than not, you and your peers step up to help navigate difficult technical questions or provide valuable insights and opinions.  

Personally, I love seeing the detailed and thoughtful product reviews, like Voodoo Envy one by BacteriaEP and the HP Firebird review by MrAlTalib.  I’m also struck by the rich diversity of the community, which I think makes our discussions so valuable and interesting. So many areas of expertise are represented, including KingHong, our ambassador from the fashion industry, and movie and audiophiles like Seamaster and Iago. I also want to give a special thanks to those members in the military – we appreciate all you do to protect our freedom.

Of course, no post about an anniversary would be complete without a walk down memory lane.  For your nostalgic reading pleasure, here are the top five most popular posts that have received the most views from everybody:

 

• July 3, 2008: The SSD Hoax?
• January 7, 2009: A Nightmare on Intel Street?
• May 13, 2009: My Own Rig
• January 8, 2009: f1r3fly: the backstory and birth of a concept
• April 1, 2009: Touch Points

The first year has truly been an amazing year of growth for us.  And there are many more big changes in the upcoming year as well.  As always, we love to hear your thoughts – so tell us what you hope to see in the future on The Next Bench over in the forums.  What would you improve?  What would you keep the same?

[Is it legal to talk on a cell phone while driving a cupcake?]

 

More than a week ago, our very own Phil McKinney gave a talk at Maker Faire in San Mateo about the secret formula for creativity and its impact on the economy.  He pointed out that in the 1970s, 80% of the value in the stock market was tied into value of inventory.  Today, 80% of assets for corporations are ideas, inventions and trade secrets.  In other words: if you want to stay on top of the game, you better get your thinking caps on.

For those of you that missed Phil McKinney’s presentation and still wish to hear the formula to creating killer innovations – fear not!  You can still check out his presentation in the videos below.

In addition to Phil’s great discussion on creativity, one thing that really blew me away was a working model of Star Wars icon R2-D2 from Chris James, a fellow HP team member. For two years Chris worked on this project in his garage and the outcome is amazing!  I’m glad that I don’t need to travel to a galaxy far, far away to see some cool robots in action.  Thanks for sharing this with us, Chris!

 

A little over a month ago I mentioned the HP Z Workstations as a new line of products that will make any professional power user drool.  After all, not only is the HP Z Workstation series a thing of beauty, it’s also a computing workhorse.  And though it may be hard to believe, a good thing just got better...at virtualization.  The HP Workstation Z800 is now the first certified hardware provider of the Parallels Workstation 4.0 Extreme software. 

Virtualization isn’t a new thing.  In fact, many companies were early to adopt virtualization to avoid expensive processing power.  But those of you in the know understand that virtualization has had its limits, like painfully slow graphics...until now.

The combination of the HP Workstation Z800 with Parallels software lets you run resource-intensive applications in a virtualized environment with near-native performance. Translation: For those of you that need computing to do some major heavy lifting, you’ll no longer be tearing out your hair over lags and hiccups.  There are countless applications of the technology for everything, from content creation such as graphic design to oil and gas exploration – and you can run multiple operating systems seamlessly!  

To satisfy your inner geek, you should read up on some of the other technology behind this beauty, including the NVIDIA SLI Multi-OS and the new Intel® Xeon® processor 5500 series and the Intel® X58 Express Chipset.  What do you power users out there think?  How will this help you at work or at play, and what are some of the things you would do with it?  We’d love to hear your thoughts over in the forums.

 

- Brian aka BZGuy002

 

 

It’s cool working for a company that constantly surprises you in a good way. Yesterday, HP made some serious announcements around its HP Eco Solutions program, and I thought they were worth sharing on The Next Bench. Even though I know that HP’s been focused on environmental sustainability for more than 50 years, I was truly blown away by the commitment shown in yesterday’s announcement. Check this out.

• HP has set a new goal to save 1 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity by 2011 through a variety of product design strategies. With the amount of energy HP expects it PCs to save, 90,000 homes could be powered for an entire year.
  
• HP has launched the HP Eco Solutions printing practice to help large organizations save money through lower paper and energy usage.
  
• HP plans to improve the energy efficiency of its printing products by 40 percent by 2011 and is on track to meet this goal with 32 percent efficiency to date.
  
• HP has doubled the number of superior energy efficient HP ProLiant G6 server platforms to 22. If all legacy rack and blade servers sold worldwide in 2005 were replaced with ProLiant G6 servers, customers would save $2.5 billion in energy costs. HP is also the first and ONLY vendor to have Energy Star qualified servers.
  
• By 2011, HP expects to use a total of 100 million pounds of recycled plastic in its printing products (cumulative from 2007). To provide perspective, this is the equivalent of diverting 4 billion plastic water bottles from going to landfill.
  
• HP has already exceeded its 2008 goal to triple the amount of recycled content in its inkjet printer products and double the amount of recycled content used in its inkjet cartridges.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. There’s a ton of work being done to make HP’s consumer products Energy Star compliant—and a huge percentage of them already are—and a focus on transforming processes to positively impact the environment.

Perhaps my favorite part  of today’s announcement is this: HP is committed to providing all of its customers not only a return on investment through financial savings, but a “return on environment” through energy, carbon and waste savings.

That’s something I’ll give a big green thumb up to.

Cheers, Tony aka Frosty

 

 One of my favourite things to read is MAKE Magazine. I have a copy of every single issue of the magazine, which is why I am pumped for this weekend’s Maker Faire. If you haven’t heard about it before, it’s a big festival event in the San Mateo County Expo Center.  Over the span of two days, the event brings together individuals in celebration of innovation, creativity, technology and the DIY culture.

Our very own Phil McKinney will speak at the event this year on Saturday, May 30th, from 1:30 PM - 2:00 PM on Stage A in the Fiesta Hall. Titled Creating Killer Innovations, he’ll be talking about the role of innovation in economic recovery. Among other things, he’ll discuss how the HP R&D team identified a whole new way for people to interact with computers without a mouse or keyboard, and how people can also learn to unleash their own personal creativity to generate the next cutting edge technology.

Oh, and you’ll also have a chance to get your hands on an HP TouchSmart PC. Several of them will be on-site to help attendees access fair information, browse content online and play with the system’s many cool features.

There will be a ton of other interesting things to do as well. Learn how to make Star Wars sock puppets, hear how someone built an airplane from the ground up – or just stop by and say hello.

 

Cheers, Tony aka Frosty

One of the guys (you may know him as iMaxx) on our team attended the Intel LAN Fest this past Memorial Day weekend in Colorado, and I thought I’d share some of the images that he snapped at the event.  With about 147 people in attendance, there was a viral video contest, Case Mod contest, and lots of tourneys with Call of Duty 4 and Unreal Tournament 3. 




Of course, we were pretty stoked to join in all the action.  We also brought some familiar products to throw in the mix as well.



The Omen in action – note the classy cabling and the cool display on the tower...



...as well as the liquid cooling!



Set up with GTX 260



And our favorite Bird running Nvidia’s 3D vision setup

Anybody heading to any other upcoming LAN parties that we shouldn’t miss out on?  Drop me a line over in the forums.

 

 I recently presented at Green Biz’s second annual Greener by Design Conference in San Francisco.  One of the major discussion topics was the impact of green innovation on product design and packaging. There were a lot of interesting perspectives shared from speakers like Adam Lowry at Method, and companies such as Wal-Mart, Microsoft, and Terracycle.  

I had the pleasure of presenting on the green aspects of the Voodoo Envy 133 packaging.  You may have read snippets in press coverage from Reuters, TreeHugger.com and Triplepundit.com. If you didn’t, I think it’s worth sharing and opening a discussion on.

We never intended the Voodoo Envy 133 packaging to “scream “green.” We wanted it to compliment the product and brand experience, while still addressing the three Rs - reduce, reuse, and recycle – in a subtle yet relevant way.  

First, we tried hard to reduce the size of the box and eliminate any throw away materials that weren’t needed. For example, instead of coating the system in protective plastic sheets and including a cleaning cloth, we opted for shipping the unit in a micro-fiber sleeve. The sleeve protected the unit during shipping and served double duty as a cleaning cloth once unpackaged.

We also wanted the package to have some long-term usefulness. I collect a lot of really nice packaging for inspiration, but most of it ends up doing nothing more than collecting dust and taking up a ton of space in my garage. We wanted the Voodoo Envy 133 box to look good enough to keep and be functional enough to put to use.  To that end, the box has a classic rectangular form, neutral colors and a subtle embossed Voodoo logo in the corner. This simple aesthetic, intentionally void of loud images, marketing materials or retail info, allows it to fit naturally into any setting. We also constructed the box so the inner trays can be removed, making it perfect for storing small collectibles or family photos and heirlooms.

Even though recycling is the lesser of the 3R’s and definitely not as important to us as the first two in this case, we made the packaging out of 100 percent recyclable materials for those who must discard.

So there you have it – all three Rs in a sweet little package. What say ye?   Are any of you re-using the box? Any good examples? Suggestions? Give me a shout over at the forums.

Although we have discussed a possible shift in the gaming industry to smaller, more energy efficient systems, I’m not ready to part yet with my big rigs. 

I thought I’d post some pics of my own set-up, as well as some other familiar systems around the HP offices here in Cupertino, for your enjoyment.  I’d love to hear your thoughts and see your set-ups as well. 


Yup, you guessed it – my baby, the Blackbird 002


Inside the guts


Anybody recognize this box design?


The inner intricacies of origami cabling


Birds of a feather!  From left to right: "Whitebird" (very limited edition), HP Firebird, and HP Blackbird.

 

- Brian (BZGuy002)

 

When we first announced the HP Firebird, a few people were skeptical about the performance prowess of the system.  Could such a small and slim form factor really have what it takes to handle gaming?  Minus the super-demanding games, we knew that that the system was as capable as some of its more beefy counterparts at playing popular titles. Our friends over at CNET, Digital Trends and the Houston Chronicle seemed to agree.

It appears that we’re not the only ones flying against the face of conventional gaming. A lot of hype has been building around OnLive, a new gaming service that provides access to popular game titles without the necessity of owning a costly computer or console.  That’s right, with OnLive, there is no need to spend $5,000 on a gaming system.  The OnLive distribution model lets you play any title on any device, and it streams it over the home broadband network. Everything runs off their server and all you need is Internet access, and everything is subscription based. You can check out the official announcement at GDC here.

If services like OnLive catch on, could it mark the end of the road for the four foot high behemoths many of us have on – or under – our desks? I believe that some gamers will be reluctant to give up on their digital arms race. But the rest of us will start looking for a middle ground between performance, cost and even things like energy efficiency. New research from Jon Peddie seems to support the idea.

What do you guys think? Will you ever give up your big gaming rig for something more energy efficient?

 

- Brian (BZGuy002)

 

As a Chief Technology Officer at HP, I have helped develop and introduce some exciting technology to the industry. But one of the most exciting things I have witnessed is the evolution of technology as a platform for building stronger relationships with our customers and the technology community.

 

It wasn’t that long ago that our only real dialogue with consumers occurred at support centers and focus groups. While those conversations are of continuing importance, we can now engage in a more regular and mutually beneficial way thanks to platforms like The Next Bench.

 

Since we introduced The Next Bench last year, the Voodoo team has discussed everything from product design to pop culture with you via blog posts and conversations on the message boards and forums.  Your willingness to listen and share your thoughts has been enormously valuable and gracious.

 

Recently we have added some new members to The Next Bench blogging roster.  Going forward they will open the window into HP to an even wider range of innovation, products and technology topics related to their roles.  We hope that you’ll get to know each of them.

 

The growth of our community will also require us to restructure this website somewhat over the coming months. We ask that you bear with us during this process and continue to provide your feedback as changes are introduced. Thanks for your continued support!

 

- Phil

 

 

Special effects are it right now. Everyone’s buzzing these days about how cool upcoming blockbusters like Star Trek and Wolverine look, with good reason.

And while you might expect mind-blowing special effects in movies, you probably don’t expect them from a magazine publisher. But today TIME, along with HP launched the new TIME 100 application, which has been optimized for the HP TouchSmart PC user. This application honestly looks like it could have come straight out of the new Star Trek—I’ve never used anything quite like this before.

Essentially, it’s an interactive, touch-enabled entryway into TIME’s annual list of the world’s most influential people using Adobe AIR. You can either dive into the profiles and video from a global perspective (by literally tapping a spinning globe to discover more about Top 100 from certain countries), or you can sort and choose a photo from a floating stack of pictures of designees.

It’s an incredibly cool application that’s definitely worth checking out. And I’m not going to fully admit to anything, but I may have been wearing a pair of Spock ears while reading about Jeff Bezos and Penelope Cruz.

Cheers,

Frosty

 

P.S. Be Sure to check out the cool video below, and the list useful links:

 

 

• HP TouchSmart landing page: www.hp.com/touchsmart
• HP TouchSmart Community: www.touchsmartcommunity.com/
• Adobe AIR landing page: www.adobe.com/go/air
• TIME 100 application: www.hp.com/time100
• YouTube video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=exH0tBjv6Qc

The HP-35 development team from left to right: Rich Marconi, France Rode, Lew Terman, Dave Cochran, Donna Whitney (representing husband, Tom Whitney), Tom Osborne, Ken Peterson, Chung Tung, Dick Osgood, Bill Misson. Not shown: David Yen, representing his father Chu Yen

 

If you stop and think about it, the technology most of us use on a daily basis is truly mind boggling. Consider the casual way we use technologies such as email, websites, touch interfaces, cell phones, and portable music devices – the list of innovations we take for granted is long and impressive. This world we enjoy exists only because a few pioneers pushed innovation forward when technology belonged more to sci-fi writers than it did to the average American.  

Last week, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers honored the team that created the world’s first hand-held scientific calculator with a Milestone award, one of a mere 85 awards presented since the program’s introduction in 1983.

Dave Cochran, one of the honored members of the HP development team, shared an anecdote at the IEEE event about the inception of the HP-35, named after the number of keys in its keyboard. According to Dave, Bill Hewlett conceived of the idea of a hand-held scientific calculator, and encouraged his team to move forward on designing a prototype before the technology even existed. And once they achieved their goal, the team put the calculator through the HP “next bench test”, which meant if the engineer at the next bench over wanted whatever product you thought up, it would probably sell. Clearly, they were right. HP expected to sell about 10,000 units, however, in its first year unit sales exceeded 100,000. 

It was this kind of vision and innovation that not only made the handheld scientific calculator a reality, but greatly impacted the era of computing and completely redefined the way people use computers, from touch and gesture technology to notebooks, smart phones and PDAs.   

I’m proud of the fact that this groundbreaking product was developed by my colleagues from an earlier generation. Lew Terman, the President of the IEEE quoted Sir Isaac Newton in his dedication of the Milestone: “If I can see so far, it is because I stand on the shoulders of giants.” As a member of the HP community, I do feel gratitude and an affinity to the pioneers in this industry and this company. They laid the groundwork for current innovators and visionaries, and there is much we can learn from their work even today.

Congratulations to the HP-35 development team for this prestigious award: Bill Misson, Chu Yen, Chung Tung, Dave Cochran, Dick Osgood, France Rode, Ken Peterson, Paul Stoft, Rich Marconi, Tom Osborne and Tom Whitney.

You can find more information about the HP 35 here:  www.hp.com/go/35celebration.

 

With some small tweaks, this song could be the anthem of ultra-portable notebook designers everywhere. Anyone designing one has to decide what components to include in the small chassis, and which ones to scrap.

One of the most hotly debated trade-offs is the optical disc drive.  Including an internal ODD means less space for other components and usually results in the addition of weight and a slight thickening of the chassis. When we faced this question for the Voodoo Envy 133, we based our decision on how frequently mobile users would need it.

Usually, the ODD is used for downloading and updating software or watching and listening to movies and music. But how often do mobile users engage in this activity?  After initial install, most software updates are downloaded online.  The majority of us also access our music online and play it directly from the hard drive or via services like Pandora. Even video is more likely to be watched on YouTube or on sites like Hulu or Netflix.  

In the end, we opted not to include an internal ODD.  We decided to offer a better thermal solution and more features by using the free space. However, we still had to decide whether the ODD should be scrapped altogether. After all, if absolutely necessary, you can access an ODD via a networked desktop or larger notebook using some of the built-in functionality in Windows.

But the team felt there was still a time and a place for the ODD. We ended up including it as an accessory with the system and, in classic Voodoo style, we chose a high-end eSATA Super Multi drive with dual format DVDRW that is ID matched it to the chassis.  To sweeten it even more,  we used the dual eSATA/USB port connector so we could take advantage of eSATA performance as well as using USB to power the ODD.  Unlike some of our competitors, we also included it in the purchase price.

Put in our shoes, how would you have tackled the problem?  Let us know what you think over in the forums.

 

Introducing new technology is one of the things I love about my job. Every so often I can let the world in on one of the secret projects we’re working on at HP. This time it’s Gabble, a social-media web service that could change the way families, friends and even colleagues communicate and collaborate.

Gabble is about having conversations with people you know using short video messages. We’ve made it easy to record a video from your PC and mobile phone with a single click, and groups are private so only those you’ve invited to your group can see your videos and respond.

There are a thousand practical uses for Gabble. Here at HP, the Gabble development team uses it to stay in touch across time zones. Essentially, we have time-shifted conversations where we can choose when to view and respond to the latest videos. It saves us from force-fitting meetings into our packed schedules. Interestingly, it’s also helped us get to know each other better and revealed some closet comedians on the team.

What excites me most about Gabble is the mobile aspect. The interface allows users to view videos via web-enabled phones and post videos via email or MMS. That means they can contribute to a conversation from wherever they might be in the world at whatever time is convenient. All-in-all it means a more rich and personal way to communicate than traditional email or public video services can offer.

We recently opened our little experiment to a small test group of customers and online communities. I want to extend that invitation to The Next Bench community. As we continue to explore and look for ways to simplify communication and collaboration, we’d like to hear what you think of the platform.  

You can sign up for the service here and we invite you to share your thoughts by email. You might also want to check out what Tom’s Hardware had to say about it.

 

 Sometimes an innovation can take on a life of its own. A great case in point is the Voodoo Power Adapter, which we introduced with the Voodoo Envy 133.  

To create the Voodoo Power Adapter we moved the Ethernet port from the chassis to the power brick, and then enabled a private point-to-point wireless connection between it and the system. We had two goals in mind. First, at .70 inches thin, the chassis wasn’t deep enough for the Ethernet RJ45 connector. Second, and most importantly, we knew it would solve a lot of common challenges facing mobile users.  

As much as we would like to think that wireless is available everywhere, sometimes mobile users can still find themselves in a wired world. Imagine arriving at a hotel that doesn’t offer a wireless network. With the Voodoo Power Adapter, you can still read through email or work on a document with about thirty feet of wireless connectivity. If you’re at a client’s office to make a presentation, you can connect to the Internet without moving your system to the nearest Ethernet cord.

These were exactly the type of user-scenarios we had in mind.  It’s worth noting that we could have tackled the problem with a USB-to-Ethernet dongle that are offered as accessories with other ultra-portables, but when those dongles are left behind or lost, trips can turn into nightmares.  And, of course you would not get the extended mobility of this solution.

What has been interesting is the list of other applications and benefits. For example, I discovered that the Voodoo Power Adapter gives me maximum access to bandwidth at home. While my wife and son are splitting the capacity of one Wi-Fi signal streaming Hulu videos, I have a dedicated wireless connection.

I also rarely need to hunt down and enter security keys for wireless network access. Instead, I plug directly into the wall and use the Voodoo Adapter to get immediate access to my own encrypted wireless network.

Have you experienced, or can you imagine, any other novel benefits of this technology? Fill us in here or on the forums.

 

 - Barry (FredFrenzy)

 

If you are flying to Chicago in the next 6 months, you’re in for a touching experience. HP, in partnership with the City of Chicago’s Office of Tourism and Department of Aviation, announced last week the installation of fifty HP TouchSmart PCs at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport (Ill. Senator, Dick Durbin, left, and HP’s Stephen Dewitt test drive one above.)

Featuring custom touch-enabled software developed by Proxure, the installation will allow travelers to access the new Chicago tourism web site and see stunning images of the city from GigaPan. Check out one of the systems in action here and see more images in our Flickr gallery.

It’s a great example of how hardware and software can be brought together to create the “insanely simple” user experience that Phil McKinney referenced in his post last week.

 

Anyone out there get their hands on one yet? Let us know what you thought.

 

Cheers,

Frosty

 

Combining slick industrial design with bleeding edge innovation has long been a defining characteristic of Voodoo and VoodooDNA systems. As part of the team that helped launch the Voodoo Envy 133 and Omen, along with HP Blackbird 002 and HP Firebird, I am intimately aware of how important this philosophy is to the Voodoo team.

I’ve since moved from the Voodoo business unit into a new role with the HP desktop team, and have been pleasantly surprised to see others touting the same principles. Yesterday, HP  announced the launch of the HP Workstation Z series, a new product line that could turn the professional graphics and power user community on its head, much like the HP Blackbird 002 did for gaming.

It’s easy to see true HP design innovation shine through in the design and feature set of the HP Z800 Workstation, and its brothers the Z600 and Z400. Slick-looking aluminium chassis? Check. Tool-less architecture and expandability? Check. Clutter-free interior for maximum air flow? Optional liquid cooling? Removable side panel? Check, check and check!

But what I like most about the newcomer is its customer-centric approach. Everything from its built-in handles and beefy Intel Xeon-based configuration to the diagnostics (HP Vision Field Diagnostics) and tuning tools (HP Performance Tuning) is clearly engineered to improve life for customers.

HP launched the system at an event co-hosted by Intel and the BMW Group DesignworksUSA, the automotive and industrial designer leader that inspired the chassis ID (you’ll notice more than one comparison between the Workstation Z and a BMW car in the media coverage.) Rob Enderle attended and posted a great review of the system, along with an account of his encounter with Bob the Monster from the new animated DreamWorks movie “Monsters vs. Aliens.”    

For more coverage, check out posts from our friends at Geek.com, vnunet.com, and SlashGear. What do you think of the system? Could it be a new standard for workstation design?

 

- Brian (BZGuy002)

 

Computers with their keyboards and mice are still intimidating to too many people.  That’s one of the main reasons HP is committed to continuing to lead the way for touch-enabled computing.  Ask anybody who has a TouchSmart PC in their home or business and you’ll hear them say that even people who are fearful of computing find the touch interface downright inviting, even fun.  It’s no surprise if you consider our growing comfort with kiosks that print boarding passes, share bridal registry information and, of course, dispense money from our bank accounts.  And with the right user interface to hide the underlying complexity, it’s a natural!  How much more natural can you be but to use the pointing device you were born with!

I was recently asked if I saw touch technology as the only input method for computing in the future.  My answer was no. I believe that touch works well with many applications, but writing a book or creating a complex spread sheet is probably still best done with a keyboard and mouse.  One of the challenges today is the lack of tactile feedback from typing on glass, which makes high-speed, long-session touch typing on glass a challenge.  To improve this experience,  HP Labs has been doing research on flexible display technology and the future of touch on next-generation displays that I think will offer an incredible ergonomic experience. And check out this article on how HP is working to simplify the traditional keyboard.

Not all touch is equal. Saying you have touch in your product is not enough -- what are you enabling with it?  What we're excited about is the software experience that allows the user to interact with technology without the traditional complexity.  We've been putting significant effort in this area because we think it plays to our strengths and shows how we serve customers in ways nobody else can.  And by bringing together hardware and software innovations, we believe we can deliver an “insanely simple” and unique experience for our customers.

What do we mean by “insanely simple?”  Our goal has been to create a user interface that is so simple that it levels the playing field for the non-tech savvy population. So we’ve been  studying physical touch and gesture languages -- what do users do “naturally” in their culture/region? -- around the world and looking at a possible future where touch-enabled devices are able to recognize cultural and personal variances and reduce the learning curve for people who use the interface.  For example, in some countries it’s rude to point with a single finger, so two fingers are used instead. Customers shouldn’t have to adapt to technology products; technology products should ideally adapt to customers.

All of this is built on a long history of research and product development. HP first introduced touch technology in 1981 with the HP 2700, which included a touch-enabled graphics tablet. In 1984, we followed that up with the first touch enabled PC called the HP150 (also please see this YouTube Video.) Today, after more than three decades of research, the HP TouchSmart PC sets the standard for touch-enabled computing, and I believe HP will continue to be the undisputed leader in the space for a long time to come.

 

- Phil

 

In my last post I talked about the reasoning and decisions behind the development of the Voodoo Envy 133 instant on feature.  Today, I want to cover another vital part of the user experience: the keyboard.

We made some changes to the Envy 133 keyboard to improve usability as well as reflect the system’s clean and simple style. You’ve probably seen pictures of its clean rectangular shape (if not, we’ve provided one for you).  Achieving those goals required us to make some design choices.  For example placing the power button in the upper right hand corner next to the delete key and removing some redundant keys.  Part of this effort generated the notorious CRTL key (see this CRTL blog post.)

These small changes evoked a surprising amount of praise and criticism (a lot of people worried they would accidentally power down the system when reaching for the ‘delete’ key. Rest assured that it takes a few seconds of pressure to turn it off.)  

The keyboard is probably the most used and taken for granted feature in a notebook. Interestingly, it also has the most colourful history. From the development of QWERTY arrangement by Christopher Sholes to the addition of programmer-friendly keys like Pause/Break, it’s worth reading up on.

But there is an obvious question we should all be asking – are all of these keys actually necessary? When was the last time you used the Pause/Break key? Now that we have snip tools, is the Print Screen button still necessary? Why must we use the ‘fn’ key to access the primary function of the ‘f’ keys?

These types of questions were on our mind – and still are for that matter – when we designed the Envy keyboard. Do you think it’s a subject worth revisiting or do you take the “don’t fix what’s not broken” approach? Fill us in here or over in the Forums.

 

 

- Barry (FredFrenzy)

Inspiration hits at random moments.  Sometimes, I find the hardest part is getting it down on paper.  One of the most important steps in jumpstarting the creative process is jotting it all down, re-working it, and taking it all in.  For me, nothing gets the brain juices flowing like sketching out the idea.  Sometimes, you never know where a random doodle will take you or help you later on.

For example, here is was a random page of my future house doodles from a few days ago…
 


For those of you out there who have the vision but don’t know how to maneuver a pen or marker to make your vision come to life, there are a lot of great places online for sketching tips.  A great resource is IDSketching.com, which was started by my friends John Muhlenkamp and Spencer Nugent.   If reading about it isn’t enough, check out some of their videos that take you through from blank slate to completed sketch.

Video Tutorial: Sketching Hands from Industrial Design Sketching on Vimeo.

Stay tuned! After the break we’ll take a closer look at some sketches that have become real-life products.

 

SOLO

It’s that time a year again.  It’s a time where the power once again lies in the hands of the people, who bear the responsibility to choose...the best of the best on Engadget.

Starting today until midnight on March 25th, you can vote for your favorite tech toys from 2008, the gadgets you looked forward to in 2009, and even the best and worst of the past year.
 
I’m extremely pleased that the Voodoo Envy and HP Firebird are both in the contention for Laptop and Desktop of the Year.  Our team is super stoked about it and we hope you are too – and we also hope you’ll get your vote in!

http://www.engadget.com/engadget-awards-2008/

rs
www.rahulsood.com

 

 

Greetings Next Bench! Barry here (FredFrenzy to those of you active in the forums).

Since this is my first official TNB post, a quick introduction is due. I was part of the team that brought you the Blackbird, the ENVY and, our latest pride-and-joy, the Firebird. But these days my efforts are focused solely on laptops, which brings us to the point of this post.

 

Rahul and Mark have done a great job highlighting the ENVY’s many features. I want to add to what they’ve said by showing you why we made some of the decisions we did when developing its feature set. This will take more than one post to cover, but let’s start with the Voodoo IOS, the Envy’s instant on feature.

 

Recently, our friends at Tom’s Guide featured the ENVY in an intriguing piece on the trend toward instant-on solutions. They asked – and answered – a lot of interesting questions about the technology. But for us, the Voodoo IOS was more than an answer to one or two problems plaguing mobile users (although yes, we’re happy that it improves battery life, boot times etc.)

 

We wanted to provide a user experience that would live up to the ENVY’s premium label. The experience we were aiming for had to start right out of the box and last for the ENVY’s entire lifespan.

 

When you turn on the ENVY for the first time, you enter a branded environment that welcomes you to the Voodoo family. After that, you’re reminded of Voodoo’s attention to detail every time you use the IOS for quick access to Web and communication apps. (By the way, if you haven’t already, check out this video review from Laptop Mag.)

 

The ENVY I use everyday has a corporate image on it, but I still use the IOS as my primary vehicle for browsing, Skype etc. when on the move. And while the Windows 7 platform looks like it will boot faster than previous versions – especially before users load new applications – the Voodoo IOS will still work faster getting you to key applications…and provide a more customized user experience.

 

So what do you guys think about the IOS environments? Are they here to stay? Head on over to the Forums and let us know!

- Barry